The mice swerved to the edges of the doorway, and many of them clambered up onto Rigg’s and Ram Odin’s clothing to ride them out of the room.
“What’s happening?” Ram Odin asked Vadeshex.
“Noxon is back,” said Vadeshex.
“Successful or not?” asked Ram Odin.
“When did he arrive?” asked Rigg.
“He arrived with the Visitors,” said Vadeshex. “He brought a blind girl with him, and they immediately came back to a time when the two of you were here in my starship. The flyer is bringing them.”
“Did they stop the Destroyers?” Ram Odin insisted.
“Of course,” said Vadeshex. “He wouldn’t have come back with that job undone.”
“Did the Visitors know they were bringing him?” asked Rigg.
“I don’t think so,” said Vadeshex. “But I wasn’t there when they arrived. Or rather, I’m sure I will be there, but I at this moment have no idea of anything except that they called for the flyer, and yes, they stopped the Destroyers.”
“Have you notified everybody else?” asked Rigg.
“The other expendables are spreading the word among those who care. The Odinfolders are celebrating. All the mice in Larfold are celebrating on the beach with the Larfolders as they come out of the water.”
“And Loaf and Leaky? Param and Umbo?”
“Ramex is heading for them right now, in his flyer,” said Vadeshex. “Give me credit for knowing my job.”
“All the expendables and all the ships’ computers were notified at once,” said Rigg. “You had nothing to do with it, right?”
“Well, true,” said Vadeshex. “But I think it’s significant that Noxon and the girl are coming straight to me.”
“To us,” said Ram Odin.
“To me,” said Vadeshex. “The girl is blind. Her eyes were burned out and she wants to try a facemask to see if it will restore her eyes.”
“She’s from Earth?” asked Rigg.
“Where else would he come up with a human girl?” asked Ram Odin.
“Will the facemasks work with people who aren’t part of Garden’s gene pool?” asked Rigg.
“She’s a cousin of Ram Odin’s,” said Vadeshex. He turned to Ram. “Apparently you had cousins named Wheaton. Arnold and Lanae’s daughter, Deborah.”
“Of course,” said Ram Odin. “They died in an accident. Wasn’t her uncle taking care of her? He had an odd nickname.”
“Georgia,” said Vadeshex.
“How do you know all this?” asked Rigg. “How long did you wait to come tell us?”
“As you ask me questions,” said Vadeshex, “the flyer is passing along the questions and then I’m getting their answers. Why do you always see some kind of conspiracy or wrongdoing in everything I do?”
“Because he thinks you’re even more deceptive and evil than we are,” said a mouse perched on Rigg’s shoulder. “And that’s saying something.”
“I’d roll my eyes,” said Vadeshex, “except that Rigg gets testy when I do such human gestures.”
“I’m still going to go take that nap till they get here,” said Ram Odin. “And maybe I’ll sleep a little better knowing that the world has been saved.”
“Saved,” said Rigg, “but the computers have still been reprogrammed by the mice.”
“If we have to,” said Ram Odin, “somebody can go back and tell us not to have them do it.”
“Oh, that’s right,” said Rigg.
“See?” said the mouse on Rigg’s shoulder. “We are helpless before your superior powers.”
“Poor babies,” said Rigg. “You gave us those powers, so don’t blame us if we use them.”
“You mean you believed that story about how we altered you genetically?” said the mouse on his shoulder.
Rigg stopped cold.
“What did he say?” asked Ram Odin.
“Something that I halfway hope is true,” said Rigg. “But if it is, I’m not sure I want to know it. I’m sure Umbo doesn’t want to know it.”
“I’m lying,” said the mouse on his shoulder. “But it certainly startled you.”
“Were you lying then?” asked Rigg. “Or are you lying now, because you saw how it startled me?”
“What did he say?” asked Ram Odin.
Vadeshex answered. “He told Rigg that the mice didn’t really do any genetic alterations to promote his and Param’s abilities.”
“Well,” said Ram Odin, “is that true?”
“I have no way of knowing,” said Vadeshex. “We can’t monitor changes on a genetic level, not from a distance.”
“What about Umbo?” asked Rigg. “Was that brutal cobbler his father or not?”
“Bring me a genetic sample from Tegay and Enene, and one from Umbo, and I’ll test for paternity,” said Vadeshex. “Till you do that, I can only say that Umbo does not look like Tegay.”
“I could really come to hate these mice,” said Rigg. “If you didn’t really alter us genetically, why did you tell us that you did?”
“We did alter you,” said the mouse. “I was joking, and it’s getting funnier by the second.”
“I’m going to take a nap, too,” said Rigg.
“But now you won’t sleep half so well,” said the mouse.
“Get off my shoulder before I pick you off and crush your head,” said Rigg.
“Violence is such a human trait,” said the mouse.
“So is merciless goading and perpetual lying,” said Rigg. “When Mouse-Breeder made you, I wish he hadn’t added in those traits.”
“I’m going to get down,” said the mouse, “if you promise not to kill me.”
“I thought it didn’t matter if we stepped on a few of you now and then,” said Rigg.
“Well, in my case, it matters to me,” said the mouse.
“I won’t kill you as long as you don’t scurry under my boots.”
The mouse made a flying leap and landed on Vadeshex, whose hand flashed out, catching the mouse between his fingers. Vadeshex crushed its head and popped the mouse’s corpse into his mouth.
Rigg almost puked on the spot.
“I can process any animal or vegetable matter,” said Vadeshex, “and I didn’t want the corpse cluttering up the corridor.”
“Why did you kill it?” asked Rigg.
“Because he was causing problems with his lies,” said Vadeshex.
“Or else he was causing problems by telling me a truth I wasn’t supposed to know,” said Rigg.
“One of those,” said Vadeshex.
“Wake me when they get here,” said Ram Odin. “And don’t eat any more mice in front of Rigg. He’s more squeamish than you think.”
“I was raised by one of these machines,” said Rigg. “I still think of them as people, even though I know better.”
“Poor Rigg,” said Vadeshex. “Try to sleep.”
Rigg held back any kind of retort, mostly because he couldn’t decide on which of them he should use. He went into his cabin and stripped off his clothes, shaking out the mice. “All of you get out of this room and don’t come back in without an invitation.”
The mice scurried out the door. The facemask assured him that they were all gone. Rigg lay down on the cot. “I want to sleep,” he said aloud to the facemask.
The facemask always understood, whether Rigg framed the request in words or not. Moments after Rigg lay down, the facemask dropped him into unconsciousness.
It was the ship’s voice that woke him, not Vadeshex, which was fine with Rigg. The facemask had him alert in a moment, with no residual grogginess. Rigg pulled on his clothes and went down the now-empty corridors to the open area where everyone was gathering. Param, Ram Odin, Umbo, Loaf, Leaky, Square, Olivenko, Vadeshex, Ramex, and a few hundred mice.